You don't recognise "this generation will not pass away until these things have taken place" is quite easily explained by the partial preterist position to which I'm partial though not fully convinced since I haven't studied it a ton, which allows for some fulfillments in 70 AD and waits for others at the final Eschaton?

So far as the preterist argument with the words "this generation" in Matt. 24, this can be reconciled any number of ways which includes that Jesus was talking about the generation of the church or the church age.

I'm riding the preterist train, but it seems clear to me that Matthew, at the very least, understood the prediction in question to refer to the "end", since he refers to the Son of Man carrying out the final judgment immediately before saying that some standing there will not taste death before they see the Son of Man in his kingdom.

Have your unabridged dictionary by your side. Note the word iridule. I think it was coined by Nabokov. I read Pale Fire so long ago I don't recall how it might be interpreted. Let me know if you figure out its meaning in its context.